Companies can cost-effectively acquire new customers beyond the online strata through IVR systems to cash in on the reluctance Indian customers have in online transactions. It also would make easier for merchants to get hold of a huge population of mobile and landline customers.

Nitin Gupta, co-founder and country head, PayU India said, "In addition to our ultra smart algorithms for increasing conversion rates and 1-click checkout feature, we announce the launch of our IVR payment facility. Through our online payment gateway offering, we are already helping the merchants to reach the internet using population which is roughly around 150 million in India. However PayU's IVR offering opens new channels for merchant's business growth as it helps them to tap a consumer base of more than 700 million mobile and landline phone users in India."

Explaining the flow of payment through IVR, Gupta said that when a customer is ready to make the payment via telephone, the telesales executive informs him that he can complete the payment process through an interactive voice response feature.

"After the customer's consent, the executive connects him with PayU's IVR payment facility. At this juncture, the call is controlled by an automated interactive voice response system. This gives the customer, a much needed security to transact comfortably. Once the customer confirms the transaction amount and his/her phone number, he/she can proceed to enter the credit card information. The payment process gets over as soon as the customer punches in the one-time password (OTP) procured from the card issuing bank".

PayU sends an SMS alert to the customer regarding the transaction details, while the telesales executive can view the same details under the billing tab available on the merchant dashboard.

Started in 2011, PayU India is part of Naspers Group, a South Africa-based multinational group of media and e-commerce platforms, and claims to have more than 1,500 merchants on board.